The Lysergic Acid Diethylamidiotic Joe Biden & Sarah Palin VP Presidential Debate thread in the 2 zero zero 8 (2008 party over oops)

ok what sort of crazy parallel dimension did u just arrive from

There are too many crazy parallel dimensions across the country in this election.

I mean how many "I think McCain's ok, but i REALLY LIKE PALIN OMG!" bursts on TV does it take to get that across? Granted, I don't make it clear which parallel universe POV I speak from disingenuously.

i think you'd feel better if you were paying more attention.

Man, shoulda just gotten Tina Fey to be the stand-in, go for broke.

Palin = Boris Johnson?

I'm pretty confident the Dems have this election, so I'm not all Scanners about this, but don't say I'm not paying attention. There are plenty of people who can outvote me in numbers who are *not* paying attention who are SMITTEN with Palin. This election will likely not be a stampede, even if all polls indicate so.

I'm kinda ignoring polls right now, because polls are less and less accurate as the years go by since they still used the land-line standard.

maybe you should take massive drops in Palin's popularity in polls with a grain of salt rather than ignoring them and freaking out every time you see a fundie wacko yell.

She has a loud fanbase but it's not getting bigger. There is NO REASON to believe more exposure to her will change this.

The concern is not that people will like her more, it's that they will like Biden and hence the Democrats less.

hahaha ned yes

i have faith in biden not flicking his tongue between his fingers at Palin. Which is what it would take for America to like him less than Palin after she's spoken for an hour.

i think we're in an xp helix here, but again, I'm speaking in context of the debate.

I don't think the VP debate will be nearly as exciting or damaging to Palin as most people think. That's all I'm saying. Maybe Palin will melt down. Entirely possible. It's entirely possible Biden will be a total asshole and Palin will shine too.

Who the fuck cares in the end anyway. There isn't much precedent for VP debates changing things.

Palin's popularity is just likely to inch up again, after which a lot of democrats most of which are NOT ON ILX will freak out, that's all I'm claiming.

But that will again be temporary once October gets into gear, when half of the Alaska GOP is thinking about life in a cold dark cell then.

"Shit, Granholm, why didn't you tell him it was bad idea to yell 'LOOK AT DEM PUPPIES!' at her?"

"I thought it was a good tactic. D'oh, we done bad!"

because polls are less and less accurate as the years go by since they still used the land-line standard.

Many but not all:

Riverdale Park, Md.: Which pollsters are being the most creative at tackling the problem of the under-35s being "cell-phone only," and thus hard to reach?

Charles Franklin: A number of pollsters have been including cell only folks for most of the year. Gallup, Pew, CBS/NYT, NBC/WSJ and I think Time. Field in California does as well. It is going to be increasingly common.

(Charles Franklin is with Pollster.com.)

I think election polls will be twittered before they get to the cell-phone stage, frankly.

("just got asked about election. I said I think the erection is alright, lol." - oct 29, 2012)

I like how everyone who is shouting "pay attention!" is conveniently ignoring that Palin did pretty much exactly the same thing in the Alaskan gubernatorial race as she's doing here and that she won that race.

I don't expect her to be particularly impressive or convincing to ME but I've already decided who I'm voting for. Clearly there is still a non-negligible segment of people who aren't convinced by Obama and I don't want a fluffy performance from Palin in the debate to make people feel better about deciding to vote for the crazy old white man.

speaking of crazy old white men

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2005/07/05/stockdale.jpg

haw

if this debate follows the open-ended format of the presidential debate i think palin's going to get away with murder - it's hard to imagine ifill doing couric-style followup questions

and without those followup questions it's not as easy to see clearly the extent to which she avoids the subject

guys Palin is completely incompetent all this hand-wringing is silly

who would you rather have a beer with? i think biden would be a hoot

guys Palin is completely incompetent all this hand-wringing is silly

Yeah because completely incompetent people never get jobs that they can't do. oh WAIT...

Characterizing speculation about what strategy would be most effective against Palin as "hand-wringing" is even sillier, IMO.

biden would be name-dropping second-tier middle eastern arms dealers while getting up out of his big easy chair for another one, fart, and not even laugh about it because he had just worked around to his main point

I thought it had already been pretty well-established what the best strategy for Biden is: remain calm, don't pounce on any of Palin's gaffes, target McCain

i think palin's going to get away with murder

^^^handwringing

I think "don't pounce on any of Palin's gaffes" is a huge huge huge mistake.

Biden doesn't need to, it will just make him look aggressive. The press will do his work for him.

and also yeah this is just a sideshow - no matter what happens it isn't gonna move polls/votes very far either way

if the debate turns out like couric interview itll hurt mccain

Biden doesn't need to, it will just make him look aggressive. The press will do his work for him.

I'm leaning towards this opinion. The press is running hard with the "you've got to be fucking KIDDING me" narrative re: Palin. I think Biden should debate McCain in absentia rather than engage much with her.

without those followup questions it's not as easy to see clearly the extent to which she avoids the subject

I dunno about this, actually: one of the secret treats of Palin is that even people who know nothing about the issues -- and have no framework for judging whether she's right or wrong or batshit crazy about something -- nevertheless know perfectly well the tone and mannerisms of someone who has no idea what she's doing; everyone's used the metaphor of a middle-schooler doing a book report but he hasn't read the freaking book, and it's true, there are times when you can just hear this in Palin's voice and see it in her eyes, and nobody likes that. So sure, if she's prepped well enough to sound convinced and authoritative about anything she says, maybe she'll be fine -- but if she starts bluffing again, it seems like people can tell that whether or not they're even evaluating the content of what she's saying.

Also yes, this is a total Palin-evaluating show, Biden just needs to sit back politely and say "this is our stance on this issue" and "I'm very glad for the opportunity to talk with Governor Palin" and not attempt any extemporaneous zingers WHATSOEVER. Just stand there and look competent and state the obvious.

lol why don't Democrats like to take people out?

biden should zing away because i love zings and he is one of our preeminent political practitioners of the art

from a strategic standpoint he should pick his zing spots so as not seem like a total jerk but not totally abandon zings as a palin flub followed by a sweet biden zing would play well on the tv indeed

Final votes:

Biden should zing 12
Biden should ignore Palin 11
Biden should lick his paws 9

Lock thread, plz

ew, ban 9 ppl

I think re: the zings he should be a total gent and let her zing first...and then be all 'here's one I made earlier...when you were in eigth grade.', emphasising that age and experience is a-okay when not accompanied by anger management issue plus nostalgia for both a lost war and a reflexive, hankering prestalgia for all Viagra-substitute violence to come.

Argh, typos...internet connection teeteringly precarious...

I'm leaning towards this opinion. The press is running hard with the "you've got to be fucking KIDDING me" narrative re: Palin. I think Biden should debate McCain in absentia rather than engage much with her.

^^ i'm inclined to agree with this but still a little concerned that the debate format is going to allow her to ramble nonsensically but oh so neighborly and directly to her base, without Couric there to cattle prod her back to the question at hand.

of course, if you are someone who's ok with this woman being the next-in-line leader of the free world, i suppose there's not much she could do to shake that kind of misplaced confidence

http://wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/palin-ohv-trash-300x199.jpg

and then be all 'here's one I made earlier...when you were in eigth grade.'

Yeah no. Biden coming off like a petty McCain-esque crank isn't going to cut the mustard -- hell, McCain managed to play the "lol old I mean experienced" card w/ more elan than that in the first debate (when he wasn't whining about Obama's supposed ignorance and inexperience).

wtf "without Katie Couric to prod her" like Gwen Ifill is some slouch who doesn't know how to moderate, she moderates discussions every fucking day doesn't she?? i know Palin makes Couric look like Murrow but come on, there is a reason we have a moderator

if he totally ignores her, he'll look condescending and rude, though.

omg just like mean old mr. mccain was to obama

There's a difference between moderating a debate and conducting an interview. Gwen is under no obligation to point out fallacies, lies or inconsistencies in Palin's statements; that's Biden's job.

Biden's already said he won't patronize Palin like 'John did to Barack'. His timbre of voice doesn't lend itself to pettiness, so I think Dave's overreacting to that bit whilst overlooking the rest of the post because whatever else, Biden hasn't got any sense of entitlement and tends to come off as self-deprecating in his humour.

absolutely -- but ifill's well within her role to reiterate the question if it isn't answered (the way Lehrer did, but hopefully being less of an asshole about it)

xpost